This week’s $20 GOTY and lost classics segments focus on the eventual re-emergence of the brawler.  Ever since the golden age of titles such as Final Fight and Double Dragon, arcade and console gamers have enjoyed bashing thier way to the other side of the screen using an assortment of moves.  However, after the 16-bit generation, the popularity of true brawlers has waned, due in fact to developer’s instance of making games in 3-d, including our belover beat-em-ups.  In recent years however, there has been a resurgance of intrest in the brawler, mostly due to the fact that developers have managed to do it the right way.  Lets take a look at two such games, one you may have missed, and the other being more recent.  BTW, starting this week, or whenever I stop being lazy, I’m moving this back to the weekend.  (Will’s week-in gaming.  Get it?)

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Anime Jungle has pre-orders for 2007 calendars up and I stumbled upon one for the new Animal Crossing movie that’s set to be released in Japan on December 12th. Powet.tv last reported on this movie in July when a few characters had been revealed through their official site.

A look at this better but still low res picture of the cover courtesy of Yes Asia reveals some new characters:

Among some already introduced characters we see the inclusion of K.K., Mr. Resetti, a Penguin who appears to be Hopper, and some kind of otter fisherman character who I believe is new to the movie. A look at other items available on both Yes Asia and Amazon Japan show that there is a plushie for this weird fishing character, named Rakosuke, due out in the next month.

Not much seems to have been going on at the official site but there is an unupdated blog which tells us nothing we don’t already know that you can check out if you really want to see something.

Stay tuned to Powet to get every tiny detail we can find out about this movie as it becomes available.

Traveller’s Tales, developers of the great pick-up-and-play platformers LEGO Star Wars have revealed their newest game to CVG.

LEGO Batman will taked DC’s famed Caped Crusader to new block shaped heights no doubt. I certainly hope we get all the body and character swapping fun from LSW, and the option to build and modify Bat vehicles. No solid details are known, but given how well the first game in the series handled, one can only hope. Whats next? LEGO has a lot of licenses, and also a lot of original properties. I’d go for any LEGO Pirate or Space game, personally.

On a semi-related note, a couple years ago the The Digital Animation & Visual Effects School project was to create a Batman short film called “Batman: New Times” featuring CG models based on Art Asylum’s Batman Minimates, which is a hardy derivitive of the LEGO style. Adam West reprises his role as Batman/Bruce Wayne, and Mark Hammill is the Joker. Its a nifty film, and worth a watch if you’ve never seen it before.

To check out the LEGO Batman toys, here’s the official site.

A powet.tv exclusive! A review of advanced copies of the new Star Wars DVDs planned to be released on next Tuesday September 12th 2006.

Special thanks to Dave for giving me the heads up that the Zellers at Place d’Orleans in Ottawa was selling these DVDs a week early and to Janine my loving and patient camerawoman/stunt double/lover.

Update – September 9th

Compare the video quality between the new updated versions (left) and original vesions (right) images have been scaled to a common size and correct aspect ratio for easier comparison

Wow! I thought Grand Theft Auto 4 wasn’t supposed to be released until next fall! Nevertheless, I’m always ready to do some more random carjacking and pedestrian killing! But what’s with the name change though? And where is the Rockstar logo? All kidding aside, Saint’s Row certainly isn’t gonna win any awards for originality. However, we should be thankful that someone decided to copy GTA instead of something like ‘True Crime’ or ’25 to Life’ for once.
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The impassioned call rang out above all others in a recent Sony investors meeting:

With the company in the red yet again in its most recent quarter, Japanese investors were in an unhappy mood. “I bought shares in mighty Sony,” cried a woman whose holdings had lost nearly two-thirds of their value. “What are you going to do about this?”

Wired Magazine investiages the company’s future with Can the PS3 Save Sony? and comes to the ultimate conclusion that Sony’s various teams and departments are in such dire straights the fate of the entire company rests on whether or not the PlayStation 3 can be a profitable success.

Sadly, the future is not looking any brighter this day. Joystiq reports: European launch of PlayStation 3 delayed until March 2007, and this heartbreaking blow to the fastest growing game market is quicky followed up with North American, Japanese PS3 launch limited to 500,000 units.

Add on the fact that the unit itself still costs $600, and trendsetters like Penny-Arcade have sworn off the launch as “bullshit” and even the editor of Official PlayStation Magazine will be opting for an Xbox 360.

Maybe I’m not seeing the glow of Sony fans right now. Entire sites like This is Waiting mock the future of the PS3, and literally hundreds of posts on digg, youtube, and blogs all across the net collectively laugh at every single mis-step. The detractors aren’t watching Sony fail, they’re actually cheering it on.

There is little doubt Sony will sell through the initial stock quickly. I’m sure they’ll also meet their trimmed goal of 2 million by Spring 2007.
But with Xbox360 poised for its second year and reporting rapid success, and the Wii celebrated at the most talked about console since console wars began 20 years ago… Does Sony even have a shot now? I mean, could this be the end of the road for the biggest company in gaming? A year ago I’d say this was impossible, but now I wonder if a Playstation 4 will even see the light of day.

From now on, instead of writing 2 different columns each week, my $20 GOTY and Buried Treasures sections will be combined into 1 big juicy post. This will ensure that you don’t miss anything, especially from the other writers. Also, this is important becuase this week will be extra big. You’ll know why as soon as you finish reading this sentence.

It’s the day after labor day, and while other news sites might chill out after the holidays, I double up! That means you get 2 articles this week. Oh waitaminute, it’s been 1 year since I started doing the $20 GOTY, so that means I gotta add in 1 more to celebrate. Two of these games you may have seen before, becuase they got lost when we switched to word press and they were so dope, I needed an excuse to look at them again. Besides, it will be a first time a lot of you will be seeing them anyhow, especially if you’re reading this on Area 4:51. So without further ado, come ride with me [to the bargin bin at your local gamestop]. [Read the rest of this entry…]